This guide is intended for humanities and social science students and researchers at the University of Oxford, although students and researchers from any field may find it useful.
Use this guide to find out about official criminal and judicial statistics from the United Kingdom and Ireland, 1800 to present day
This guide relates to statistics from official government sources only.
Many official statistics were published as parliamentary papers. In recent years they have been published by the government departments themselves. It can be quite hard to establish who is responsible for publishing different sets of statistics. This is especially true when there has been a change in the machinery of government; the department changes name and also responsibilities. This guide aims to give easy access to historical and current statistics.
The Bodleian Law Library has extensive UK legal deposit and foreign collections covering all aspects of law and includes historical and expansive works on crime, criminal justice and penal systems. The Social Science Library holds the main teaching collections for Criminology.
The Official Papers collection as well as holding departmental papers has a full set of Parliamentary Papers from 1801 to the present day. We are also, notably, a depository library for the United Nations.
